Judge asks Apple, Samsung to call truce

San Francisco - The chiefs of iPhone-maker Apple and smartphone giant Samsung were to be in patent war truce talks on Monday at the direction of a judge who asked them sidestep a court battle.

Apple boss Tim Cook and Samsung chief Gee-Sung Choi were to commence private mediation sessions with a judge in San Francisco federal court but there was no sign of them in the building through the day.

Cook and Choi were free to slip away together to a venue of their choosing for the scheduled two days of settlement talks, details of which were to be kept secret.

“The parties have indicated they are willing to participate in a Magistrate Judge Settlement Conference,” San Francisco district court Judge Lucy Koh said in a court order earlier this month.

Koh is presiding over two closely-watched patent lawsuits pitting the companies against one another and wants them to resolve their differences before trials, the first of which is slated to begin in July.

Apple and Samsung, a leading maker of smartphones and tablets using Google-backed Android mobile software, are fighting patent battles in more than half a dozen countries.

Each company accuses the other of infringing on patented technology in smartphones or tablets.

Samsung is a leading maker of mobile gadgets powered by Google-backed Android software, but it also supplies California-based maker of iPads, iPhones, and iPods parts for its coveted gadgets. - Sapa-AFP

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